Player's Guide

Playing the Game

Right now, the game is made for a laptop/desktop, and assumes a mix of keyboard and mouse usage.

The game runs well on a Mac with Chrome, FireFox, or Safari, although Safari has a worse rendering engine, so you will see odd content flashes sometimes. I recommend expanding the game's viewscreen to your preference (using the browser's zoom function) and using full-screen mode. It probably runs fine on a PC, but I haven't tested it well in that environment.

Movement [← ↑ →]

Movement and world interaction is almost exclusively triggered by using the arrow keys. You can only move forward - in the direction you are facing - and you can turn 90 degrees with use of the left and right arrow keys.

You can 'bump' into objects to interact with them, including walls.

Messages and Actions [← → RETURN SPACE]

When interacting with the world, you are often presented with a dialog box that either requests acknowledgement or an action. The first option is always pre-selected. You can either click on your choice, or use the left/right [← →] keys to highlight, and [RETURN] or [SPACE] to make your choice.

Saving Your Game Progress

Your game is saved in a few different ways. Your current state is maintained after each movement, interaction, or round of combat; such that when you close your computer, etc. you should be able to return to your game. For now, this is stored on your machine itself, not in an online account. Most commonly this means when you leave your computer or it goes into sleep mode, you can be assured you can continue.

In terms of game savepoints, you are only allowed to save your game at special pillars scattered throughout the land. You may only have three savepoints. The savepoints are not per-character; in other words, you can have three different sets of characters going at once each using a single savepoint.

This local storage of your game should last indefinitely, but I've found that some browsers clear out your storage on upgrades (Chrome).

Game Menu [ESC]

To enter the game menu, press ESC. This option isn't available during combat or in most interactive moments. From the game menu, you can choose to start a new game or load an existing game save. [ right now I have two menus...maybe I don't want this ]

Light [L/l]

If you have a torch or other source of illumination, you can automatically light the first one by pressing the L key. If one is already equipped, L will douse it. As a convenience (to yourselves and others), your torch may be automatically extinguished when you go inside certain buildings.

Your torch - and all other items - have a limited lifespan. As a result, you should make sure you aren't burning your torch when you don't need it.

Using, Dropping, and Transferring Items - Character Menu [C/c]

When characters are in free movement (not interacting or in combat), you can access the Character menu to manage items. This includes:

• Equip / Unequip - Equip / unequip a weapon or torch
• Use - Use the item as appropriate
• Drop - Drop the item, lost forever
• Transfer - Transfer the item to another character in the party

To avoid an accidental loss, you cannot drop an item that is equipped. Unequip the item, then drop it.

Characters

When you start the game, you will be alone. Being alone in this world isn't a great idea. You'll soon find that gaining allies is essential to your progression. These additional characters will be introduced to you over the course of the game, and they will have different characteristics. You move and act as a group as long as the characters remain.

Character Traits

Characters each have three traits: Body, Mind, and Spirit. These three traits start at a certain level and can be improved as they gain experience. Traits are used for determining the results of chance situations, such as combat actions or interactions with others. These determinations are called Tests.

Development of these traits is essential to progression in the game. Traits are the greatest influence over your characters' success. There are five levels of traits. These trait values are shown in the character menu.

Tests

Tests are times at which traits and randomness are combined to determine a result. Tests commonly occur during interactions with people or objects and may be presented as a choice. For example, your party may be interacting with a distracted guard, and you are presented the option to pick the guard's pocket. If you elect that option, then a Test is made that determines how successful the attempt was. There are up to four different outcomes for every Test. Success and failure are two possibilities, but depending on the Test there may be critical failures or critical successes as well. In the pocket picking example, success may lead to a picked pocket and failure may lead to a failed pick; and critical success may lead to finding a particularly useful coin, and critical failure may lead to being caught.

When presented with a Test, the game will automatically select the best character to perform the action. This helps to streamline the interactive process, since in almost all cases you want your best Thief to perform a lock pick, for example.

Trait: Body

The Body trait is used for all athletic, strength, constitution, and agility tests. It is useful for physical attack and defense in combat, and for athletic feats outside of combat, such as climbing a wall or jumping out of the way of a falling rock.

Trait: Mind

The Mind trait is used for Tests involving mental activities such as intelligence, wit, detection, and many kinds of observation. It is useful for Tests such as disabling traps, identifying obscure writing, or noticing something out of place. The Mind trait is most commonly used to determine the correct use of items, such as Healing Poultices.

The Mind trait also is the basis for the Insight combat mechanism. In combat, characters are given the option to use Insight, which boosts their actions for that combat round. Each character has one Insight per Mind value, and Insight regenerates outside of combat. You can think of Insight as using your intelligence to make a particular action more effective, or spotting an opportunity. As a general rule, characters may want to lead their initial attacks in combat with Insight, on the hopes of quickly defeating some foes early in the encounter, and hoping to regenerate Insight points before the next encounter.

Trait: Spirit

The Spirit trait is used to describe spiritual fortitude and transcendent wisdom. It is useful for enduring fearful situations, performing certain forms of spell casting, and cases where strength of character matters. Spirit is used to recover from the Shock condition as described in the Combat section, and as such is very useful for independent recovery from being wounded.

Combat

Combat is a key element of this game. Though the combat mechanisms are simple, it's good to familiarize yourself with the basics.

Combat is managed in turns - you queue up what you want your party members to do, and then a round of combat ensues where each active party gets an action. At the beginning of each round of combat, you elect to Fight or to Run. Selecting Fight will then allow you to select each party member's targets. Selecting Run will cause all your party to forego fighting or defending, and simply attempt to flee from battle.

If you manage to run away, what happens next depends on how you encountered the foe. Foes that permanently occupy a space will remain, and you will return to where you were before you attacked - basically, you are retreating. Also, retreating from permanent foes allows them to regenerate all their original health and capabilities - so you can't just retreat to wear them down. If your foe is a random or 'wandering' foe and you retreat, then you have evaded the foe and you can proceed ahead.

Foes will have different initial health points. When you start playing the game, foes may only have one or two health points. You can see a foe's hit points and status when in combat. Sadly for you, all foes you encounter will start combat with full health. You, as an interloper, have no such luxury.

You will notice that all health status bars will show red, orange, or 'empty' cells. Understanding these is critical to the game. The number of cells that an individual has is their maximum number of hit points. If all cells are red, the individual has full health. Each depletion of red cells indicates wounding and a lowering of capability. Orange cells indicate the status of Shock, meaning that the individual absorbed one point of damage from an attack but may shake it off. Shock is removed with an automatic Spirit test, and if it is shaken off, the hit point is restored back to red. If the individual takes another hit or two of damage, the shock point is removed and the hit point is lost. As a result, the Shock mechanism allows individuals to 'buffer' their damage and recover based on their Spirit. Once a hit point is lost, it is only recovered through the use of spells or other healing methods.

Time

This game tracks the passing of time in a full day / night cycle. When outside, you can see the light change at various parts of the day.

Many actions and encounters in the game are triggered by the time of day. As a result, you may want to explore areas during different times of day.

FAQs

Where's the minimap?

The staple of the modern video game - the minimap! They are very useful for remembering where you are and how to get to your next quest destination. But the philosophy of immersion in this game is to either have the player remember the environment they are in, or - as those from the old days recall - have the player make notes or graph-paper maps of dungeons - like one would do in real life! I still have my hand-made maps from The Bard's Tale from over thirty years ago, and they serve as a wonderful reminder of those quests.